Solution Employed

Service Employed

Turnaround Scope Benchmarking and Early Conceptual Benchmarking (ECB)

Benefits Achieved

• Establishment of a competitive and realistic long-range turnaround plan• Analysis of how early cost, schedule, scope, and labor estimates compared to Industry average and top quartile performers • Delivery of quantitative metrics on organizational capability required to successfully execute turnarounds of varying size

Challenge

An independent refiner set out to create a long-range turnaround plan for two of their facilities. They wanted to create a plan that was both competitive and realistic. Historically, their long-range planning budget estimates had been far off the mark, and they had experienced substantial scope and labor-hour increases. Management needed more reliable estimates broken down by major units in order to make better decisions.

Approach

AP-Networks deployed its Turnaround Scope Index (TSI) Methodology to tackle the challenge. The TSI empirically quantifies the amount of turnaround scope and enables the benchmarking of scope relative to comparable Industry events. The client provided AP-Networks with basic information on each of the units that would require work during turnaround, including technical data and maintenance history. AP-Networks developed a TSI value for each unit, thereby providing Industry average ranges for scope, direct field labor (DFL) hours, cost, and schedule. This gave the client a clear picture of “what good looks like” and how their estimates compared with those metrics.

Next, AP-Networks assessed each of the client’s facilities to understand their organizational capability. Our assessment uncovered each site’s “critical point,” beyond which a turnaround would be too complex for the organization to handle.

Results

Following our assessments, the client had a clear sense of the work their units would require and of the work their sites were capable of executing. The client was able to see clearly where their scope deviated from Industry: they were able to recognize areas where their scope was low and could potentially increase, as well as where they needed to conduct a thorough risk analysis to potentially reduce scope. By understanding their organizational limits, they were able to keep planned scope within the confines of what they could successfully accomplish.

By contacting AP-Networks early in their long-range planning process, the client was able to apply these conclusions to their preliminary five-year plan and make adjustments in order to set their facilities on a path toward success.